Results

A few weeks ago, I wrote about my decreasing waistline as a positive sign of my training for the Green Bay Marathon. In fact, since that post, I have crossed the 180 threshold and had more days below 180 than above it. This week, I want to write about another type of result...

In March 2015, I ran my first 13.1 miles as I prepared for Door County. It was a grind of a run.

I remember by the end of the run, I could barely hold myself upright and my feet were shuffling along the ground as I inched my way to what seemed like an impossible distance.

Then there was Door County in May of that year...

By no means a bad race, but as I have written about before, I hit the wall hard during the last mile and had to walk. My time was more of the benefit of going out too hard rather than running a smart race.

Four months later, I ran a very smart Madison min-marathon...

This was slower than Door County because I paced myself so much better. I was much happier with the result of this run than the Door County race simply because I did not burn myself out in the early miles and felt strong for the entire race.

Prior to the Chicago Marathon, I would run 13.1 miles one more time but this was more of a leisurely long-run than an attempt to set any records. Alas, the run felt solid and I was officially set for Chicago.

Since the Chicago Marathon, I did not run 13 miles again until this past February, where I decided to run a hard 13.1 and see if I could improve on my time, which I did...

 

In less than a year, I managed to knock 7 minutes off my time and improve my pace by nearly 30 seconds per mile. Obviously, this is nothing to be disappointed about.

A few days ago, however, I looked at the goals I had set for myself at the beginning of the year. One of these goals was to run a half-marathon in 2:05:00.

This past Sunday, I decided to see where I was at in terms of my half-marathon time and my goal.

From the start, I pushed myself. I wanted to run a comfortably hard "race" with the goal being anything below a 9:30 min/mi pace, but ideally I wanted to get as close to a 9:00 min/mi pace as possible.

I could not have been any happier with the results:

For the first time, I ran a sub-2-hour half-marathon! This is even more surprising knowing that I had to stop twice to stretch my quads in order to alleviate pain in my knees (something the guy at the running store says is due to a "muscle imbalance"). In the process of this run, I set several PRs:

As Door County Half and the Green Bay Marathon approach, what I have taken away from this training cycle is that the body can endure more than I thought it could handle. Sure, I am stronger this year than last and the cooler temperatures have allowed me to pick up the pace without worrying about dehydration, but I am more prepared now to run through that wall. During my training, I have sought to push myself even when the legs grow tired and the body asks for a break. The wall shall not stop me. Even with the 13.1 mile run this past weekend, I had a couple moments where I felt myself slowing down but managed to dig deep and pick up the pace. Training for a big race can be frustrating and difficult to do because it requires so much time, effort, and self-motivation, but seeing results makes it all worth the effort.